"What a weakness it is to love Jesus Christ only when He caresses us, and to be cold immediately once He afflicts us. This is not true love. Those who love thus, love themselves too much to love God with all their heart." - St. Margaret Mary Alacoque

"Faith does not reinforce the pride of a sleeping conscience, the vainglory of people who make their own wishes the norm for their life, and who thus refashion grace so as to devalue both God and man...any one of us who is suffering and struggling can be certain that 'God is greater than our hearts' and that whatever my failures, I may be full of confident trust, because Christ suffered for me..." - Pope Benedict XVI

"When the heart is pure, love responds to love alone and has little to do with duty, obligation, requirement, or heroic anything. It is easy to surrender when you know that nothing but Love and Mercy is on the other side." — from Breathing Under Water

"We are all fragile, we are earth, and not every plot of land produces the fruit intended by the farmer. Let us always humble ourselves after our failures, recognizing that we are completely helpless without divine assistance." - Padre Pio

"Above all the grace and the gifts that Christ gives to his beloved is that of overcoming self." St.Francis of Assisi

Freedom to love

I love those days when God blows you away with the things He is doing - in your life, in the lives of others... in the world. Today was one of those days for me.

I was blessed with a text message from a friend, Andres, that I had lost touch with and learning about his walk with God was one of the most beautiful and real things I've ever experienced. I'm learning so much what it means to be Christ to others. And his story teaches me just that.

There is beauty in simplicity. There's just something about it that attracts you to it. Those who live in simplicity are able to experience a certain freedom that is hard to imagine in this day and age. A freedom from the stress of uncertainty, a freedom from the attachment to things, a freedom really....to love. To love without a care. This is the exact opposite of the freedom we hear about nowadays. When we think freedom, we naturally think about having everything we want; having things under our control; and using things, situations, and sometimes even people to our own "advantage". We rarely see freedom as the ability to give rather than get. But when we define freedom as these things...we fail to see and experience that freedom that God calls us to. Our lives become reduced to mere possessions, activities, and most of all to emptiness and ultimate dissatisfaction.

Living simply opens the door to love in such a profound way, which I am a great witness to through the life and love of this friend.  I remember when I first met him, and something I'll never forget that he mentioned  is how he doesn't out when he has something to eat at home. Hearing that made me think, "Wow. That's incredible. Could I ever do that? Or better yet, would I ever be willing to do that?"

And the thing I'm realizing more and more is that the things we often claim we "need" are often not needed. If only we made the sacrifices, we'd be so much happier. We would learn to not seek security, happiness, treasures, anything and slowly begin to seek that in the One who gives us all things. There lies our ultimate joy and hope. I long to be a living witness of that. I long to make the sacrifices I personally need to love Him and all of humanity in the way that God desires.

This same friend of mine recently decided to let go of many of his material things and began living in a van for the past 7 or so weeks. He realized how easy it is to get caught up in our own wealth, desires, and self-centered living and knew that he wanted more. He responded to a need to reach out to others and love them as Christ loves. And this lifestyle isn't at all easy. He puts up with the heat, the tiredness that comes with being out and about all day, and other inconveniences. But his struggles communicate the greatness of our God who transforms our lives to show us Himself, so that we can in turn share who He is with others. To me, Andres is a living example of what it means to seek to live a spirit-filled and radical lifestyle for the sake of the Gospel. He shares this in common with Christ, who showed us the same powerful, radical love at the cross and "loved us to the end". I can't wait to hear about his experiences and the little things God does in him and through him to shake up the world we live in.

Pray for him with me.

For more info, read his blog: http://www.vanliving.webs.com/